may day flowers + free printable via seejaneblog

when i was a child, my mom and i lived with my grandparents in the rainy northwest. when i was about eight years old, my *grandpa was eighty-something and he had a notorious flower garden. i first learned about may day from this grandpa. each may first, he would slowly and carefully roll paper into cones, and take me out to pick flowers from his garden. then, we would go for a walk in our neighborhood and choose homes to leave the flowers at as a surprise. he would stand back, let me go to the door, leave the flowers, knock, and run…

hello sunshine * may day flowers via seejaneblog

one year, i was caught in the act and our local paper wrote an article about my grandpa and i keeping the may day tradition alive…

.....

17/52

April 28, 2013

one

two

three

four

“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

kiana: has a closet full of incredible clothes, but still prefers to wear mine.
myla: extremely diligent with doing her homework.
kj: finished spring-cleaning his room this week. i had to stay in his room with him almost the entire time and remind him about every two minutes to stay focused. my easily distracted boy – there may have been some bribing involved too.
sela: stole brothers hat and the stripe obsession continues

.....

birthday mornings.

April 27, 2013

so…. regardless if my kids have a friend-birthday-party or a family birthday party, we always have a family birthday morning.

and, birthday mornings are a big deal at our house. from the minute our kiddos wake up, we celebrate…

masculine birthday morning via seejaneblog

celebrate on the floor via seejaneblog

party on the floor style via seejaneblog

peek behind the cake: see that blue blob? kj requested blue crepes and bacon for breakfast!

we called them smurf crepes.

kj's birthday morn

the birthday begins via seejaneblog

sela woke up early and tip-toed in to our room. she whispered to me

mom, don’t feel bad. i’m not going to snuggle with you this morning because i’m going to wake up kj with birthday snuggles…

.....

16/52

April 21, 2013

one

two

three

four

“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

kiana: enjoys cooking. she made two {low-carb} family dinners this week – chicken peanut-curry, and spicy chicken basil stir-fry! {they were both phenomenal!}
myla: takes Chinese at school and gives herself character-pen-tats
KJ: just a small patch of freckles on that nose.
sela: overheard me call kiana “bug” this week, and replied, “mom! you can’t call her bug, i’m your only bug… you can call her {paused… thinking… thinking.. thinking…} worm.”

.....

marblehead, massachusetts

April 18, 2013

my kids are on spring break this week, so we went exploring in marblehead, massachusetts yesterday.  and since spring has officially arrived here in boston we’ve been enjoying what nature has to offer daily.  we made three stops, two were recommended by a friend and the other we found all on our own – which i love. we also ate lunch at a cute, classic new england cafe’, and visited the local toy shop for kites and yo-yos. it was one of my favorite days in new england so far.

the first stop was castle rock –

castle rock, marblehead massachusetts via seejaneblog

marblehead, massachusetts via seejaneblog copy

at castle rock copy

sitting on castle rock via seejaneblog

hiking castle rock at marblehead massachusetts via seejaneblog

sitting with my girls on castle rock via seejaneblog

our second stop was chandler hovey park,

.....

the art of… family

April 16, 2013

this past weekend, i took a whole lotta sidewalk chalk + all of my kids outside to our driveway. we spent all afternoon out there, and not only created some chalk masterpieces, but created some fun memories.

the art of family via seejaneblog for twig creative

to see more pictures from our activity {more sidewalk chalk art!}, and to read my thoughts on “the art of… family” head over to the twig creative blog. and then, buy one of their wooden treasures, because they are the absolute cutest toys ever! true statement.

***

dear friends, thank you dearly for all your texts, emails, fb/twitter/instagram messages yesterday and this morning in wake of the boston explosions.

.....